On top... Mountain

Before we get to the pictures, one little thing bearing note... 

  I (Grant) have been growing a little cyst on my arm that Carrie, until recently, had dubbed my "third hand" so that  I had almost no choice but to finally give in and go see a doctor about it, so terrible was her teasing. So on Friday we went to the hospital to get it removed, as it was just big enough that the surgeon I saw said she was unwilling to do it in her office. 

Aren't you glad we don't have any pictures of this?

 Anyway, the results of all this are first, they gave me the most wonderful drug to put me to sleep. It gave me a sudden hole in my memory followed by a slow wake-up process that left me the most relaxed I have ever felt in my entire life, and no pain for hours afterward. And yeah, I asked... they can't send any of that stuff home with you without losing their licences. Also we got to find out how Vicodin affects me. I think the most accurate way to describe it is it makes me "disappear" (stare blankly and say almost nothing). This is okay, for the most part, because I am officially a gimp as per doctor's orders, unable to lift more than 15 lbs lest I tear my sutures. This means I can pick up Cerise, but not Cairn. I've also lost the range of motion necessary to do the dishes. 

 I know, I know... poor Grant, nothing to do all day but relax, do hard drugs, and use the computer all day.

Okay, now that I've grossed you all out, we can start the pictures. Cairn has been begging us all week to go "on top... Mountain!" And since it's been raining a lot recently, it sounded like fun (it was). Here's seven cataracts:

  Sadly, this is one of those waterfall chains that can be seen from the highway, but to get to the foot of them, it's something like a four-to-five hour hike one way. After we saw them today, though, I made Carrie promise me we'd attempt it next anniversary (when all children should be big enough to spend all day at my parents' house). 

 After stopping there, we went for a picnic somewhere where there would be running water. We managed to find a little stream and a waterfall that were both Cairn-sized:

 This meant that we could have Cairn take her shoes off and wade around to her heart's content with minimal concern. 

  The scenery wasn't bad, either. 

(Carrie's taken over...)

Cairn, the little adventure monger she is climbed her little waterfall and slid down it on her tummy and waded all over the little stream.  We finally tore her away for lunch and convinced her into the car not because it started raining, but because we promised to take her for a drive through the clouds.  So we drove up Mt Lemmon a little farther and it really was magical to drive into the clouds that had been raining on us just moments before.